Online trading has adapted to new realities: social, crypto and millennials

Social media and changing demographics have changed the way we communicate and share information. The average person now spends more time on social networks than activities such as eating, drinking or socializing. So it’s no surprise that apps are incorporating such features to grow their user base. In particular, trading platforms are becoming a way for analysts, investors and speculators to congregate and share their real-time insights and predictions in order to profit from financial markets.

TradingView has grown to become a large investor platform with over three million active users in a relatively short period of time. It leverages key trends: social, crypto and younger, millennial members. Users share tips and ideas about investment ideas, and all this content results in the creation of market intelligence by way of smart interaction between investors. Secondly, the site follows the emerging cryptocurrency market so investors can profit from the rising valuations of bitcoin, ether and other digital coins. Finally, 39 percent of sessions come from people age 25-34.

The site distinguishes itself from finance platforms such as SeekingAlpha by emphasizing visual charts as well as social rankings. With so many users weighing in, the problem arises of how to distinguish the wheat from the chaff in terms of credibility.
TradingView, however, shows reputation rankings for individuals, as well as the history of past posts and data about how many followers and likes each member has. The rankings enable the best trading minds to rise above the noise. It’s like building credibility on Facebook or Twitter by showing a record of successful predictions and analyses.

Less experienced users can research a poster’s success record by clicking on past predictions and see how they played out. The also allows a space for newbies to document their own successes, failures and forecasts.
While TradingView isn’t the only platform to harness the power of social for market intelligence, one element that separates them is users’ ability to create visual aids and insert them into posts much like a blogger can embed a YouTube video.

Sites that use the “hive mind” to brainstorm ideas could be the future of the industry. The decentralized approach curates and leverages the best ideas so members can profit from the insights.
With so many users sharing their views, the audience gets a diverse, results-driven perspective instead of relying on a limited pitch from a financial planner or broker who’s mostly interested in gaining a commission. Moreover, the published track record provides a level of objectivity from those who are posting about trading opportunities because it’s their passion.

When digital trading systems made their first appearance back in 1969 through ECNs (electronic communication networks), no one could have predicted that online trading would lead to sharing of investment ideas on a global scale. TradingView has over 70,000 users joining each month.